BB Champs Part Two

We learned on Sunday morning after warmup that Natalie was chosen to be in the 200 yard Medley Relay doing the backstroke (first) leg. The girl who was originally on the "B" relay team got moved up to the "A" relay team, so Natalie replaced her on the "B" relay team. Natalie loves relays. They're more exciting and she really gets into the team spirit aspect. Unfortunately, the relays were scheduled to be the last events, so we had to pretty much stay for the whole morning session. That meant that we didn't finish the relays until around 1:30pm but then we still had to be back for the warmups before the Finals at 3:15pm.

We've learned that in the past, Natalie does better if she leaves the meet, even if she is only at home for a couple of hours. Of course this time, we didn't even have that much time. She decided to stay in the tent while I went and got her lunch. Her friend Renzi was in the same boat since Renzi had been on her relay team (which got third place--more on that later). They may look asleep in this picture, but they weren't. They didn't nap at all, but I guess at least they rested.

I thought I would take one last photo of the "tent". My back was against one wall of the tent, so this is a view of the whole length of the tent. There weren't as many people packed into the tent today. We thought that was probably because it was much nicer outside on Sunday than Saturday, and that people either sat outside in the sun or sat outside in other tents that they set up themselves. We actually had some leg room today and I didn't have another folding chair so close to the back of me that the corner was stabbing my back.

Patrick brought Eric to Natalie's first race, the 50 yard Butterfly. She was seeded something 14th place out of 21 with a time of 33.86. In the prelims she got a time of 34.13. She added 0.27 seconds. We were happy that once again she did not act pouty and disappointed like she has done in the previous few meets. She qualified for the evening finals, which is what was important. In the evening, she competed in the consolation final and finished with a time of 33.73. She dropped 0.40 seconds from her previous best time and came in 10th place overall (out of the 16 girls at the finals). She wasn't ecstatic, but she was not unhappy.

Unfortunately, her friend Ally got disqualified because "her foot moved before the start of the race". Natalie tried to comfort Ally the best that she could. Patrick had just been talking about how he did not like the officials at this race, because he felt like they were unnecessarily nitpick and which he didn't feel was good for the young kids.

This is Natalie with Ally on her right and Renzi on her left. There was a little unnecessary drama amongst her and her friends during this meet, but they appeared to have worked it out for now.

We had to wait over three hours before she swam again (for the prelims). In the meantime, Patrick left with Eric so Eric could go to Faith Formation class at our church, then he took Eric home to stay with Alex and he came back for Natalie's 50 yard backstroke race. Natalie was seeded 7th out of 27 with a time of 34.34 seconds. In the prelims she dropped 1.14 seconds to come in first overall with a time of 33.20 seconds. That was an "A" standard time and Natalie was ecstatic and so were we!

To top it off, she swam in that 200 yard Medley Relay a short time later. Since she swam in the first (backstroke) leg, her time "counted" as an official time. She swam her 50 yard backstroke in a time of 33.03, for even more of a drop in time. We were so happy for her! In the evening final, Natalie got first place in the championship final with a time of 32.53 seconds! She dropped 0.67 more seconds for an overall drop of 1.81 seconds! Wow! She wanted a medal and she got the first place medal!

Interestingly, even though she now has "A" standard times in the 50 and 100 yard backstroke, she decided not to go to the A Championship Finals in three weeks. That is on Valentine's Day weekend and Natalie wants to go to the dance at her school and spend time with her non-swimmer friends. We're glad that she seems to have other interests as this will make her more well-rounded. Her friend Ally has faster times than Natalie does in everything except those two races, but she was disappointed that she didn't get any "A" times. She wanted to go to the A Champs in place of Natalie. Ally's mom said that they might notice since Ally is a head taller than Natalie with blond hair and blue eyes.

So, this was a very tiring weekend, but after not dropping any significant time in any of her events in the last few meets, it was nice for Natalie to make some measurable progress at this meet. I guess that makes spending the whole weekend in a tent worth it.